The Definition of Insanity
What’s the definition of insanity? You know the answer – performing the same set of actions and expecting a different result.
The Navy is looking at the next surface combatant ship, the Future Surface Combatant. Here’s a description.
Future Surface Combatant refers to a family of systems that includes a large combatant akin to a destroyer, a small combatant like the Littoral Combat Ship or the upcoming frigate program, a large unmanned surface vessel and a medium USV, along with an integrated combat system that will be the common thread linking all the platforms. (1)
So, again, we see a family of ships that will be mutually supporting and supportive of the overall naval effort.
Navy leadership just recently signed an initial capabilities document for the family of systems, after an effort that began in late 2017 to define what the surface force as a whole would be required to do in the future and therefore how each of the four future platforms could contribute to that overall mission requirement. (1)
So … a family of ships. Okay. Wait … does that sound a little bit familiar?
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| SC 21 Family of Ships |
If you recall, the 21st Century Surface Combatant (SC 21) program was to have been a family of ships that included a cruiser (CG-21), a destroyer (DD-21) and, later, an arsenal ship. (2) I’m not going to bore you with a detailed description of the SC 21 program, its many name and scope changes, etc. Details of the failed program are readily available on the Internet. Instead, I’ll simply ask, how did that work out? After many years and much effort and anguish, we got three Zumwalts with no main battery and no mission.
So now we’re going to do it all again?
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(1)USNI News website, “Navy’s Next Large Surface Combatant Will Draw From DDG-51, DDG-1000 — But Don’t Call it a Destroyer Yet”, Megan Eckstein, 28-Aug-2018 ,
(2)Wikipedia, “SC-21 (United States 28-Aug-2018 ,
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